I saw an article from "The Texas Lotto Report" (Dawn Nettles) on the internet a while back. It explained what it would be like to win a $175 million. This looks like another reason to remain anonymous.

www .lottoreport. com/175milliontoone.htm

Smart lottery winners form trust to claim their winnings. They send an attorney to the lottery headquarters to claim the prize in trust, so that ONLY the name of the trust is revealed. And they tell NO ONE, especially relatives.

If you ever win a lottery and you are single, the only person you should ever marry is someone who was truly in love with you BEFORE you won the jackpot!

Given the choice, anyone who opted not to remain anonymous would be asking for grief, inviting it....and it would probably start with family, something like a brother or sister saying, "Wondeful, now that we've won..."

Most state lotteries require that the names of major winners and their general addresses be made public; only very few states allow the winners to be anonymous.

In the event you win, and would like to maintain your privacy, consider creating an artificial person, such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a Corporation. The authorized representative of that artificial person will claim the prize.

Or you might consider assigning the prize to a Revocable Private Trust, where you are the beneficiary. The trustee or authorized representative will claim the prize.

Only the names of the LLC, Corporation, or the Trust and their general addresses will be made public. This is not to say that you will be completely anonymous. A nosybody can delve into the identities of those behind these artificial creations; but then even in states allowing anonymity, one can still find out the identities of winners, if he really wants to. We have the Freedom of Information Act and/or the courts to allow one to do this.

Personally, in the very rare chance I win, I will do both: create an LLC and a Trust.

By the way, this is only for general information. For your particular circumstance , it is best to consult your attorney. When you're talking millions, retain an attorney.

I know anonymity is an ongoing topic, but I have a new question. You know how people legally get their names changed, i.e. Hollywood stars? If you really didn't want your "real" name in the paper because of greedy relatives or acquaintances, couldn't you legally change it before claiming your prize? Just a thought, although it might sound silly. Of course, you'd still be obligated to pay any taxes or past debts, since you would have the same social security number. Then you'd have to get a new license, soc sec card, etc. However, nobody who knows you would recognize your new name, right? This wouldn't be the same as creating a trust, because the website and the newspaper still lists your names (at least they do in FL) since it's considered to be public information. I'm quite sure a person can legally change his or her name to anything as long as it's not to commit fraud. Probably not worth the hassle, but this is the stuff that pops into my head at 1:30 in the morning.

It all depends on how much was won. Many midrange winners at under the $20 million mark are anonymous simply because it's not news.

If, and that's a really big if, Mega breaks 400 and a single person wins you can forget trying to hide who you are. Same with someone winning a record Euromillions pot if it matches the old level and a single ticket wins. Any winner at the 400+ level can kiss being anonymous goodbye.

Before I claimed my prize I would rent a house or apartment in a large city in the state I won it in. Set up the phone, bank, drivers license and utilities while still living and going about my business as usual in my hometown.

Meantime I would hire a lawyer, an accountant, and a financial planner.

This way the announcement would say Jane Doe in Houston won the lottery. Not Jane Doe in Tinytown. When I claim my prize, no press conferences, no pictures, no commercials. Folks my find out later that I was the winner but it would give me a head start out the door.

At this point, I'm on the fence about anonymity. If I just won a million or two in a state lottery, I don't know that it would be worth the hassle to set it up through a trust, especially if I have to have someone else do the investing for me. I've done my own investing for 30 years or so now, and would really prefer to just go on my same merry way - except with more money. I'd have to look into exactly what is allowed or required in this state.

The real quandry, though, is if I were fortunate enough to win MegaMillions. I've mentioned this before, but if the amount were great enough, I'd want to give sizable gifts to about 20 relatives, possibly even fully supporting three of them who are either currently or likely soon to be unable to work at all due to severe disabilities. The chances that 20 people could all keep their mouths shut, I fear, would be pretty slim. And as a retiree, I'd have a rather difficult time coming up with any other explanation of where I got the money.

Also, with a large win, I'd want to donate large amounts to charity. That would be no problem in keeping the gifts anonymous for the national charities. But for some of the local ones, I think I'd prefer to be actively involved in some of the decision making of exactly how the money is used, rather than just sending a representative. Yet every other charity in the county would be chasing me if I did that. So I'm on the fence. The chances of a big win like that are so slim, that I guess I'll not really worry too much about it until I see those matching numbers.

But if you see a Washington state winner of MM who takes a couple of months to come forth, it just might be me trying to make up my mind.

Most state lotteries require that the names of major winners and their general addresses be made public; only very few states allow the winners to be anonymous.

In the event you win, and would like to maintain your privacy, consider creating an artificial person, such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a Corporation. The authorized representative of that artificial person will claim the prize.

Or you might consider assigning the prize to a Revocable Private Trust, where you are the beneficiary. The trustee or authorized representative will claim the prize.

Only the names of the LLC, Corporation, or the Trust and their general addresses will be made public. This is not to say that you will be completely anonymous. A nosybody can delve into the identities of those behind these artificial creations; but then even in states allowing anonymity, one can still find out the identities of winners, if he really wants to. We have the Freedom of Information Act and/or the courts to allow one to do this.

Personally, in the very rare chance I win, I will do both: create an LLC and a Trust.

By the way, this is only for general information. For your particular circumstance , it is best to consult your attorney. When you're talking millions, retain an attorney.

My state, Louisiana, allows the use of trusts and LLCs to claim prizes, and many winners have done that, sending an attorney or other such representative to collect the prize.

Anonymity isn't a yes/no thing. It's more about how anonymous you want to be, i.e. how hard you want to make it to be found. In most states, LLCs and corporations are required to have the name(s) and address(es) of owners/officers be on the paperwork, which is public record. Most states put this information online and with a simple search of a website, you can find who is behind the LLC that claimed the prize. This provides anomymity from those who wouldn't do anymore than look in the newspaper for the winners, but not those who would do a little more searching.

I'm not sure how public the records of trusts are, but they might be better option for anomymity if it is harder to get the information. There are some states, New Mexico and Nevada come to mind, that do not require names to be on the incorporation paperwork which means they aren't public record. Not sure how that would work though, to claim the prize in another state. It may require registering to do business in that state, which may require names be revealed which of course, might be web searchable. Most don't know this, so they wouldn't know to search, which offers a little more anomymity I would guess.

When thinking of ways to be anonymous, think in terms of how hard you want to make someone work to find you. Someone with alot of time and alot of resources will be able to find you no matter what you do, but most don't have that much at their disposal. Some might be content with anomymity from simple web searches while others will need something more elaborate.

Most state lotteries require that the names of major winners and their general addresses be made public; only very few states allow the winners to be anonymous.

In the event you win, and would like to maintain your privacy, consider creating an artificial person, such as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a Corporation. The authorized representative of that artificial person will claim the prize.

Or you might consider assigning the prize to a Revocable Private Trust, where you are the beneficiary. The trustee or authorized representative will claim the prize.

Only the names of the LLC, Corporation, or the Trust and their general addresses will be made public. This is not to say that you will be completely anonymous. A nosybody can delve into the identities of those behind these artificial creations; but then even in states allowing anonymity, one can still find out the identities of winners, if he really wants to. We have the Freedom of Information Act and/or the courts to allow one to do this.

Personally, in the very rare chance I win, I will do both: create an LLC and a Trust.

By the way, this is only for general information. For your particular circumstance , it is best to consult your attorney. When you're talking millions, retain an attorney.

Great ideas, thanks!!

Something similar to what you describe was done in Georgia years ago for a Lotto Georgia winner where their spokesperson was the face seen by the public claiming the prize on behalf of their family LLC.